The Right Time (31 page)

‘So you're resorting to insults, Ellen? Very mature.'

Ellen shook her head. ‘You're the one who's insulting, Tim. I couldn't care less what you do in your own time, our marriage has been over for so long I couldn't feel jealous if I tried.'

He seemed a little miffed at that.

‘You need to understand this whole situation a lot better, Tim. You put Kate in a terrible position, she was so distressed last night. Don't you even care about that?'

‘Of course I care. I didn't mean for that to happen. I didn't do it maliciously.'

‘Oh, for Chrissakes, can we not revert to that defence?' said Ellen. ‘I should hope you didn't maliciously set out to upset your daughter. But you did anyway, by being thoughtless and
self-centred. So can we agree now that stuff like this doesn't go through the kids first? And that we never, and I mean
never
, ask them to keep secrets from the other parent?'

‘What if it's about a birthday gift or something?'

Ellen wondered if he'd always been this thick. ‘Tim, are you actually
trying
to be obtuse?'

‘Sorry, okay, I get it.'

‘And while we're establishing ground rules,' Ellen continued, ‘another thing I have to insist on is that you didn't let Kate come home whenever she wants if it's your weekend.'

‘Well, I don't know how I can stop her,' said Tim. ‘She's a young adult, Len. At her age you were pregnant and we were about to get married.'

‘I was a little older than she is now,' Ellen corrected him. ‘But this has nothing to do with whether she's old enough to come and go as she pleases. The point is, what if I wasn't alone?'

‘What do you mean?' he frowned.

‘What if I was with someone?' she said, spelling it out for him.

‘Were you?'

‘I don't have to tell you that.'

‘Oh, but I have to tell you.'

She rolled her eyes. ‘Tim, you only have to tell me before you tell the kids. If it doesn't involve the kids, your private life is your own business. And I have a right to the same privacy on my weekends off, and a chance to pursue a life for myself, without thinking the kids are going to walk in on me.'

Tim looked quite pale at that idea. ‘What am I supposed to do? I can't physically stop her.'

‘Tim, I don't blame Kate for not wanting to hang around in your empty flat last night. But it's your weekend, and you should have made the kids a priority, not packed Sam off to a friend's place and left Kate to her own devices.'

‘But I had something on.'

‘Well, bad luck,' said Ellen. ‘These are the sacrifices we have to make when we're parents. You have seventy-five percent of the time to do whatever the hell you want, is it so hard for you to give them twenty-five percent?'

He looked chastened. ‘I guess not.'

Ellen sighed. She hoped she had finally got that through his thick head, though she had to wonder. ‘Now, how are you going to proceed?'

‘What do you mean?'

‘The new girlfriend,' Ellen said plainly. ‘Is it serious, do you want the kids to meet her?'

He shrugged. ‘What do you mean by serious? I'm not thinking of marrying her or anything.'

‘But it's a steady relationship?'

‘Yeah,' he sighed. ‘I have been thinking it's time they met her.'

Ellen thought about it. ‘Okay, I'm going to be honest – it's weird for me not knowing who she is, when my kids are potentially going to have a lot to do with her. I mean, I never let them stay the night at a friend's place before I meet the parents.'

‘Do you want to meet her first?' he suggested.

‘No, that'd be weirder.' Ellen tried not to grimace. ‘I don't know, I've never done this before.' She paused, thinking. ‘I suppose I should know the basics, where she lives, what she does for work. Her name for a start.'

‘Oh, right,' he said. ‘Well, her name's Therése – you know, with the accent. Not Ther
eez
, she hates that. She lives in the city . . . Oh, and you don't have to worry, she's got plenty of money,' he nodded, his eyes widening. Ellen wasn't sure why that was her worry. ‘And, um, well, she's very accomplished, she's travelled the world, even lived overseas for a while. She has a law degree, but she isn't a lawyer, she's some kind of consultant, very well regarded. She's on boards and stuff like that.'

Ellen was beginning to wonder what this superwoman saw in Tim.

‘But . . .' He was frowning.

‘But what?'

He looked uneasy. ‘Well, she's pretty amazing, really accomplished . . .'

‘Yeah, you said.'

‘But she's . . . well, she's . . . she's not exactly . . .'

Ellen was waiting.

‘She's not that attractive.'

‘You should have said, “Well, lightning's not going to strike twice.”'

Ellen looked at Finn, not understanding.

‘You know, that he can't expect to find someone as attractive as you again . . .'

She smiled then, maybe even blushed a little. But it was nice of him to say that, to make her feel better. Finn had a knack of saying the right thing at the right time, which was probably what had drawn her over here after she left Tim at the café. Kate was going back to her father's sometime today, so Ellen would be going home to an empty house, and she just had to debrief after her meeting with Tim or her brain was likely to implode. Back in the car, she had flipped open her phone, contemplating who she could call as she scrolled past Emma, then Evie . . . no, Liz was the best person . . . but then she'd come to Finn. She'd pressed Call before she'd thought about what she was doing. When he answered she made some excuse about paying her account, and he said to come on over.

‘I just can't believe Tim would say something like that,' Ellen went on. ‘I mean, what kind of messages is he sending the kids, telling them his girlfriend's not all that attractive?'

‘Do you think he actually said that to them?' Finn asked.

‘I wouldn't put it past him. He seems to have no idea of what's appropriate for a father to say to his children, let alone for a man to say to his estranged wife. You know what he told me, in all innocence? He said he'd joined a couple of internet dating sites
before
we separated, and he'd made lists all ready to go, but he swore to me that he never actually contacted anyone until after we were separated.' Ellen shook her head. ‘He's such a . . . a nong. How did I put up with him for so long?'

‘Got me,' Finn shrugged.

‘And the ego,' she rolled her eyes. ‘He said he didn't want to upset me, that's why he didn't tell me about the girlfriend.'

‘Well, you do seem kind of upset . . .'

‘No, I'm upset that he thinks I'd get upset! And he didn't stop there. He kept telling me I should go on the internet myself, that he understands how hard it is to put yourself out there but that I just have to be brave. How dare he start giving me dating advice?
Like he's suddenly some kind of guru, when all he's done is snare himself a rich, “not very attractive” woman and is sitting back, hitching a ride on her coat tails. What's he done that's so “brave”?'

Ellen stopped, noticing Finn's slightly startled expression. ‘I'm sorry, I'm getting worked up. And I'm holding you up.'

He shook his head. ‘I've got nothing better to do. Do you want a drink?'

‘Yes please,' she sighed. ‘That's only if you were going to have one?'

He nodded. ‘But I've only got beer.'

‘I don't care, as long as it's alcohol!'

He ducked out the back and came back with two bottles, passing one to Ellen. He clinked his against hers. ‘To better days.'

‘I'll drink to that.' She took a sip and grimaced, swallowing it down.

Finn smiled, watching her. ‘I've got something that might help.' He disappeared out the back again.

‘I'm not sure I'd like lemonade,' she called after him, ‘it might be a bit sickly.'

He reappeared holding a couple of wedges of lemon. ‘Not lemonade, the real thing. There's a lemon tree growing over the back fence,' he explained as he took her bottle and proceeded to push one wedge down into the neck. ‘I pick up whatever drops on the ground. Or looks like it's going to,' he added with a grin.

Ellen was watching him. ‘I've seen this, does it really make much difference?'

‘The trick is,' he said, pressing the flat of his palm over the top of her bottle, ‘to mix it right through.' He turned the bottle upside down and the lemon rose right up into the base and bobbed around. ‘That ought to do it,' he said, turning it upright again and passing it back to her.

‘Thanks.' Ellen took a tentative sip. ‘Hmm, that's not bad.' She took a couple more swigs while Finn did the lemon trick to his own bottle. She started to feel a little buzz, and a sense that the tight coil of righteous indignation inside her was starting to unwind.

‘Have you ever tried the internet?' she asked Finn.

‘What, dating?' He shook his head. ‘Nuh.'

‘You are single?'

‘Don't you think I would have mentioned it before now if I wasn't?'

She wasn't sure what he meant by that.

‘How long have you been single?' she persisted, leaning her elbow on the counter and propping her chin in her hand.

‘Depends how you calculate it. I haven't been in a long-term relationship for a while.'

‘Why not?'

He gave her a slightly quizzical smile. ‘I don't know. I don't think I've got commitment issues or anything, if that's what you're asking.'

‘No, no, I'm just saying, you're a good-looking man, you've got a full head of hair, you're in the prime demographic, and it's a buyer's market. I'm surprised you haven't been snapped up.'

‘What can I say?' he shrugged. ‘You don't meet many girls in my line of work.'

‘What about customers?'

‘Most of them are married.'

‘I wasn't,' she said. ‘I mean, I'm not. Well, actually, officially I am, but not really, you know?'

‘I know.'

She took a long swig of her beer and sighed deeply. ‘Can I ask you something, as a man?'

‘But you're not a man.'

Ellen frowned. ‘Will you answer me as a man, I mean?'

‘Well, I can't very well answer you any other way.'

She pulled a face. ‘I want a man's perspective on something, an honest perspective.'

‘I'll do my best.'

‘What's it like having sex with someone for the first time?'

He sputtered a little on his beer. ‘Wow, I didn't see that coming.'

‘I'm sorry, am I being too personal?'

‘Well, I don't think you could get much more personal, but it's okay.'

‘'Cause I was just wondering, that's all, how a man feels “putting himself out there”,' said Ellen. ‘Everyone keeps saying
that's what I have to do – put myself out there. What does that even mean? And how do you do it? It's terrifying.'

‘It can be terrifying for men, as well,' said Finn. ‘You know, all the approaching has to be done by us, we're the ones who have to risk rejection.'

‘I guess, but women are only rejecting a lot of the time because they're so terrified.' She drank down another mouthful of beer. ‘I know I am.'

‘Are you?'

‘Not of meeting guys, or talking to them . . .'

‘Obviously not.'

‘Or even going out for dinner . . . but having sex?' She shuddered. ‘Can I tell you something?'

‘I have a feeling you're going to anyway.'

‘I haven't had sex with anyone but my husband. How pathetic is that?'

‘Well, you were only young when you got married,' he pointed out.

‘How do you know that?'

‘You told me your daughter's nearly nineteen, right? You must have been very young. Maybe twelve?'

Ellen smiled then. ‘Resorting to flattery, eh?'

‘I just think you're worrying about nothing – guys aren't as fussy as you think.'

‘I liked it more when you were being flattering.'

‘I knew that wasn't going to come out right,' Finn said with a rueful smile. ‘What I'm trying to say is that men love women, and men love sex, and if they get some, mostly they're just grateful. They don't call it getting lucky for nothing.'

‘I'm still terrified,' she muttered.

‘You've got to face your fears sometime.'

‘But facing your fears doesn't usually involve getting naked,' she pointed out, taking another swig of beer.

He smiled. ‘What do I keep telling you? A guy would consider himself lucky.'

‘I'll take that as a compliment.'

‘You should.'

‘But look, I'm going to be frank now.'